Mick Halsall may have been on the receiving end of a few unflattering chants from Cambridge United fans when he was captain of arch-rivals Peterborough United back in the day.

But it is water under the bridge for Halsall, 56, who now hopes to help develop the likes of Leon Davies, Harry Darling and Matt Foy to the United first team in his extended role as senior professional phase lead coach.

Although he remains first-team coach, working alongside Shaun Derry and Joe Dunne, Halsall has been handed the extra responsibilities following a review of United’s football structure at the end of last season.

And it is something he is only too pleased to do having started out with his childhood favourites Liverpool as a youngster at a time when the club ruled not only England but Europe in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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Halsall said: “It was my club, I was a Liverpool fan from a little boy, so it was great to be associated with and something I’ve always treasured.

“It was a fantastic grounding, especially in that period when they were best team in Europe.

“There was no chance of me breaking in with the quality they had, but the grounding I got there set me up for the rest of my career.

“The people I worked under were terrific towards the local lads knowing that the possibilities for us to break through were very limited, but they helped us to set off on a pathway that would give us a bit of longevity in the game, which it has proved to be.”

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After several seasons playing for Liverpool reserves, Halsall moved to then top-flight club Birmingham in 1983 and went on to play for Carlisle, Grimsby and Posh, where he became a club legend in a six-year stint before becoming assistant to Chris Turner, who had previously managed the U’s, in 1994.

Halsall ended up becoming manager the following year following John Still’s exit, but following the arrival of Barry Fry in 1996, he went back to coaching only to be laid off as an economy measure soon after.

It was that situation which made him consider his options in football and the career path he wanted to take.

“Being made redundant for the first time in my career, it’s something that it happens to a lot of us and it’s something that helped me develop again because I had to,” he said.

“I got an opportunity to go back in as a first-team coach at Barnet with John and stayed there for a couple of years, but I felt my pathway was youth football.

“I wanted to go in and develop players, which I was able to do for near on 10 years at Walsall, and then an opportunity came to work at a different category level at Wolves for five seasons.

“That was difficult, not so much with the players, but it was a great learning curve and then I went to Notts County.”

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He said: “I just think if you can stamp your authority on some of the youngsters and give them a real insight into first-team football, that’s what I’m going to do now at Cambridge.

“It was something we discussed in pre-season and hopefully now with some of the youngsters coming through, I’ll be able to help them progress and get them ready for first-team football.

“Being able to pop down and watch the youth team a couple of times this pre-season and having watched the under-16s and under-18s a few times last season, it’s just trying to get an insight into the youngsters as well.

“Hopefully I can get down to a few training sessions for the younger age groups as the season progresses as well, but the academy does a fantastic job and hopefully I can help promote those older players, the likes of Leon (Davies), Harry (Darling) and Matty (Foy) and help them on the pathway to getting some game time in the first team.”

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With the ability of the younger players not in question, Halsall felt his job was to get them in the right frame of mind and not be deterred given the competition for places in the first-team squad.

He said: “It’s the mental side of it. Not so much when it’s going well, but when it’s not going well or they don’t see a pathway and having been in the game and worked in this sort of structure for so long, it’s about that durability of a youngster.

“Even though it might only be a season, it’s a long season and some of them can falter.

“Some of them within two or three months might think ‘well, I’m not a part of it, what’s the use?’

“That’s because it’s been so easy for them to progress in many ways because they’ve had a pathway and been the better players, but it’s when that pathway looks as if it’s being blocked and you say ‘how are you going to deal with it?’

“It’s maybe getting them to realise playing first-team football can be totally different.